This story is another one of those quirky synchronicities we all recognize as odd, but it’s anyone’s guess what the deeper meaning is. Maybe it’s just to illustrate how like attracts like! It’s from Mysteries of the Unexplained, but a Google search on Graham Sutherland, the artist mentioned in the story, indicates tat the story is nearly as well known as the various participants.
British novelist J.B. Priestly told this story to writer Arthur Koestler in a letter he wrote in February 1972.
Priestley’s wife – British archaeologist Jacquette Hawkes – had bought three large lithographs by Graham Sutherland that she took up to the bedroom to hang the next morning. As Priestly explained in his letter to Koestler: “They were leaning against a chair and the one on the outside, facing the room, was a lithograph of a grasshopper. When Jacquetta got into bed that night, she felt some sort of twittering movement going on.”
So of course she does what anyone would do: got up and pulled back the covers. And there was a grasshopper. In the bed. “No grasshopper has been seen since. No grasshopper has been seen at any other time in this house.”
Interesting.
I am researching a book on J.B. Priestley and I have just started making notes on "Over The Long High Wall". I was needing to find an image of the Sutherland lithograph that JBP mentions on page 80. I did a Google search and found you guys and the lithograph. Thank you.
Indeed you may be interested in my work … specifically because next week (Monday at 1500) I will be doing my regular "spot" on BBC Radio Merseyside and I will be talking about, you guessed it, synchronicity!
Terri – don't know how I missed this story!
My friend and I, two 4-year-olds, brought a grasshopper into Mom's back room to show. The room was still under construction and had no grates on the vents. Just as mom said the grasshopper was very nice but it would prefer being outside, the grasshopper jumped, leaving the leg, caught in my friends finger, behind.
We scrambled to catch it, but into the open vent hole it went. For years, the story was retold about the grasshopper corpse somewhere in the ductwork.
I would think the grasshopper was welcoming you!
Terri – now you've got me wondering. A 3 legged grasshopper?!
Seeing a grasshopper shortly after moving to this place, being visited by him a few weeks later, was like meeting a good friend.
What a nice reminder to continue to be friends with nature and the life it provides.
(Looking forward to see him again.)
It's tempting to read all 285 comments on Dick Cavett's post but, not this time. It's great that he posts these stories.
For me, his post kept mentioning Roosevelt, but didn't indicate which one. Earlier today my sister-in-law, who just completed an awesome edit of my memoir, stated she was me to include more about my mom's time in Warm Springs and the Roosevelt connection.
What's cool about this post today, and the comments, is – in my memoir there's a story about a 3-legged grasshopper…
Always interesting to hear about other people's synchronicities.
wonderful! can hardly wait for the newbies, trish!
Musing – thanks for the cavett link! I agree, the seems to have a block about synchronicity – the word!
Intuitive – great story about the bees.
Nancy and gypsy – thanks for your comments the past several days. We had some interesting synchros on this trip that we'll post soon!
This is off-topic for today's post, but I just had to direct y'all to The New York Times where Dick Cavett is describing an event of sync again but refusing to use the word to describe the meaningful coincidence! He seems to have a block on it. 😉
P.S. See your May 10, 2009 post for a description of his earlier column. Here's his column from 9/11:
https://cavett.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/11/strange-dear-but-true-dear/
Interesting. I just read Intuitive Girl's comment. I think I will start paying attention to this phenomenon. Looking up an animal symbolism might prove interesting.
neat fun story! and yours, too intuitive!
whenever I see an animal over and over again, i look up its symbolism. a couple of weeks ago i was with a friend and noticed that bees seemed unusually attracted to her wherever we went. i figured that was a message for her, but when i got home, The Secret Life of Bees was on when I turned on the television and then when i picked up a book i have been reading i noticed for the first time bees on the cover. at that point, i figured the bees were talking to me, not her 🙂